Gradient Stops in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Learn how to work with Gradient Stops and to create new gradients in PowerPoint 2016.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2016OS: Windows 7 and higher

Date Created: May 17, 2016Last Updated: May 17, 2016

Once you add gradient fills to shapes in
PowerPoint 2016, you may want to make the gradient fill look a little different -- or even a
whole lot different. Yes, you can use the More Gradients
option to add different types of gradients as fills to the shapes but that only provides more gradient fill types, and does not let you customize the
colors within the gradient.

Look at Figure 1, below -- the rectangle on the top of this slide shows our original gradient that blends between just two colors,
green and blue. The rectangle in between adds two more colors, a middle blue shade and a leafy green to end up with a 4 colored gradient. Finally, the
rectangle at the bottom alters the transparency settings of some colors -- you can thus see the slide background which in turn comprises 3 colors:
white, grey, and black. In this tutorial, we'll step into a little more detail and show you how gradient stops work. When you are done with this
tutorial, you can create your own gradients, or edit existing ones -- as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Add colors and transparency to your gradient stops

First let us explore what a Gradient Stop is. Quite simply, this is the point where a new color is introduced within the gradient blend.
All gradients must have at least two or more stops -- follow these steps to learn more:

Select a shape, and access the Format ShapeTask Pane as explained in the More Gradients tutorial. You'll end up with
the pane that you can see in Figure 2. Note that all areas of this pane other than those that are concerned with
Gradient Stops have been faded -- an explanation of the options within the faded areas has already been provided in the
More Gradients tutorial.

Figure 2: Gradient stops options

If you look at the first option in this area, you'll see that there is a gradient bar (highlighted in red within
Figure 3) with 3 gradient stops.

Figure 3: Gradient bar

If you see less or more than the 3 stops, don't worry for now. As long as you have at least 2 stops, you should be fine. That's because a gradient
needs at least two colors to exist. Figure 4 shows a shape filled with a simple 2 color gradient.

Figure 4: 2 Gradient stops

Look at Figure 4 -- it contains a gradient formed between dark blue and light green. You can see where the blue starts, and the green ends. These points, where a new color starts, ends, or just jumps in between is called a stop.

Look at Figure 5 now -- this one contains a gradient formed with 3 colors -- the black in between the blue and green forms a stop at
around the 35% mark (35% from the left).

Figure 5: 3 Gradient Stops

In PowerPoint 2016, you can add and remove gradient stops.

To add a gradient stop, make sure that you have selected the existing gradient stop after which you want to insert a new stop. Then click the
Addgradientstop button (highlighted in red within
Figure 6). This will add a new stop exactly between the selected stop and the next stop. Otherwise, you can also simply click on the
gradient bar on the position where you want to add a new stop.

Figure 6: Add Gradient Stop button

To remove a gradient stop, just select the stop you want to remove, and then click the Remove Gradient Stop button
(highlighted in red within Figure 7). You can also drag the gradient stop off the gradient bar to
remove it.

Figure 7: Remove Gradient Stop button

After you have added gradient stops, you can change their position. To do that just click on the stop that you want to change the position of and
drag it along the gradient bar to the new position. These stop positions are calculated percentage-wise from 0 to 100%.

If you want to move a stop to a precise position, first select the stop you want to change the position of, and enter a percentage value in the
Position box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8.

Figure 8: Change the position of your gradient stop

You can also change the color of a stop. First select the stop for which you want to change the color, and then click the Color
button (highlighted in red within Figure 9). This will bring up the Color drop-down
gallery -- see Figure 9 again.

Figure 9: Color drop-down gallery

The options within the Color drop down gallery are explained below -- you'll need to choose any one of these options for the stop
color:

Theme Colors: Here you can select any of the colors which are from the active Theme of the presentation. You can also
select any of the 5 tints or shades for any Theme color. Learn more about Themes here.

Standard Colors: Here you can choose from any of the ten standard colors -- these ten standard colors are just choices of colors
that PowerPoint believes to be widely used. You don't have to limit yourself to either the Theme colors or Standard colors, as you'll learn in the next options, although it's a good design idea to use Theme colors as far as possible.

Recent Colors: Here you can find the colors most recently used. If you have just launched PowerPoint and created a new
presentation, the Recent Colors option may be entirely absent since you haven't selected any color recently!

More Colors: This option is to summon the Colors dialog box as shown in Figure 10. This dialog
box has two tabs: Standard and Custom -- first select the Standard tab (again, refer to
Figure 10).

Figure 10: Standard tab within the Colors dialog box

The Standard tab offers 127 colors in a honeycomb style palette, 14 gray shades, black and white. You can even change the transparency value of the selected color in the Transparency slider below. If you want more color choices, then select the Custom
tab of the same dialog box, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Custom tab within the Colors dialog box

Within the Custom tab, you can chose any color from the spectrum and later adjust the selected color's luminosity with the slider on
the right. You can even enter specific values of RGB and HSL to create a specific color -- all these combinations provide 16 million color
choices!

Again, you can even change the transparency value of the selected color in the Transparency slider below.

Choose any color and click OK to apply it.

Eyedropper: This is the new option in PowerPoint 2013, the
Eyedropper option enables you to pick an exact color from
anywhere, even from somewhere outside PowerPoint.

You can also change the Transparency level of each stop color -- first select the stop and then use the
Transparency slider or enter the transparency value percentage-wise (both the slider and the box are shown highlighted in
red within Figure 12, below).

Figure 12: Change transparency values

0% transparency equates to no transparency, and full opacity. 100% transparency equates to full transparency, and no opacity.

Use the Brightness slider (highlighted in blue within Figure 12, above) to change
the brightness level of the stop color. Moving the slider towards left makes the color darker and moving it towards right makes the color brighter. You
also have an option of directly entering the brightness value from 0% to 100% in the box next to the Brightness slider.

Select the Rotate with shape check-box (highlighted in green within
Figure 12, above) to rotate the gradient fill when its container shape is rotated.

Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts and sequences in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado?
Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?